Walking the Chasm's Edge
by Tirainy
Summary: When Shadow got the news of his lover's successful rescue, he was overjoyed. When he returned to the Resistance base and Sonic would barely look at him, he was confused. When he learned of the reason why, he was ready to go and unleash hell on the responsible person's head.


**AN:** I've been once again thinking about the plot of Sonic Forces and how Infinite going after Sonic in the game makes zero sense considering Shadow is the one who wrecked his life and thus should be the one Infinite should be getting revenge on. Of course, as I was trying to figure out Infinite's reasoning behind all that, my mind immediately runaway into the Sonadow territory...

**P.S.** I feel like this story should have a trigger warning but considering the scenario presented I'm not sure how to tag this. Therefore, I'll say it here—this story does not deal with the aftermaths of domestic/spousal abuse but torture disguised as such. Still if you are sensitive to these topics, please, proceed with caution.

* * *

**Walking the Chasm's Edge**

When Shadow got the news of his lover's successful rescue, he was overjoyed. When he returned to the Resistance base and Sonic would barely look at him, he was confused. When he learned of the reason why, he was ready to go and unleash hell on the responsible person's head.

**TAGs:** One shot, Writing Exercise, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, Established Relationship, set during Sonic Forces, Recovery, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Mental Manipulation, Implied/Referenced Torture, Trauma, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.**

* * *

It was long past midnight and most of the Resistance had been asleep for hours now. There were only select few that had not yet laid down to rest in preparation of the next day. The two of them were among those few.

However, while the most of the other no-sleepers were actually out there patrolling the halls of the Resistance base, they were in their personal sleeping quarters, hands on each other's body rather than wispons and mouths letting out quiet noises rather than reporting on any suspicious activity.

Unfortunately for them, these _noises _weren't born out of pleasure as one could expect of two adults spending the night together. No. It were shaky breaths taken to fight down mounting panic that had no reason to be here. Involuntary whimpers let out at a terrible memory resurfacing in spite of the touches being nothing but loving. Choked gasps given in surprise when tender caress was offered instead of the expected pain.

Though it was true that there was_ one _word that was often said among these noises.

"_S-stop._"

The moment those four letters were uttered, the striped hands would always fall away from the blue and peach body, letting its owner gain back his composure and decide if he wanted to continue _this_ or finally call it quits for the night.

"We can stop altogether," Shadow offered, still not sure whether this_ exercise_—if he could call it such—was truly helping Sonic or if Sonic was just trying to convince_ himself _of that. "Tomorrow is also a day," he said, forcing his hands to stay where they were instead of raising them and caressing one of the hero's cheeks as he would have done back in the day; before Infinite it could have possibly comforted Sonic, but nowadays it was more likely to send the hero running in panic.

"I _hate_ this," Sonic half-hissed, half-choked out instead of answering him. The blue head laid to rest on Shadow's left shoulder and the agent was fairly sure he could feel hot tears wetting his fur there. He said nothing about it. "I know it wasn't_ you _but—but..." Sonic took a deep breath, clearly trying to force back his emotions. "We can't let Infinite win."

"He won't get away with this," Shadow vowed quietly, his tone calm and even as the agent did not allow any emotion into his voice unlike the first time he had given this vow when he had learned of what exactly Infinite had been up to all those months that Sonic was in his 'care'.

Striped hand curled into the washed-out sheets of their bed as Shadow did his best to rein back his fury and bloodlust to go_ skin certain certain Jackal of his hide alive_—because that fucking bastard was_ not_ what was important at the moment. Sonic _was_.

And, after all, revenge is best served cold with a side of irony. He _shall_ be the devil that Infinite had made him out to be in the sickening warped reality he had been subjecting Sonic to all these months with the help of the Phantom Ruby. He'll bring hell on Earth and the bastard will _burn_ for what he had done.

Taking a deep breath, Shadow released his hold on the sheets, reminding himself that he needed to have a cool head right now. Infinite's time would come. But it was not now. Sonic was the one who required his attention right now—the hero was finally ready to face his demons in_ flesh _and Shadow ought to be here physically as well mentally.

It had taken the _weeks _to get to this point, he could not risk making mistakes that would set them plummeting back to square one.

It had taken so much to get _here_. Who knew if they would be able to do it again.

"Do you want to continue?" Shadow asked quietly when the brief moment of inactivity began to stretch a bit too long from its usual duration; naturally, Sonic was the one called all the shots in these 'exercises' so Shadow never re-initiated the physical interaction unless Sonic prompted him to or he had the hero's verbal consent.

But the moment continued to stretch and nothing was happening. When the reply finally came it was soft and quiet. "...I don't know," the hero said, clearly having to force out the answer and fighting back sobs at the same time. "I'm s-sorry," he added, curling more into him, pressing against him and making Shadow more acutely aware of how much the hero was shaking.

"You don't have to," Shadow responded back, stopping himself just in time from wrapping his arms around the other. He let his hands curl around the sheets against instead. "It's not your fault," he assured the other, squeezing his eyes in pain.

Sonic knew _he_ was not responsible for all the pain the hero had to bear all those months, but, unfortunately, Infinite had worked diligently on making sure the hero's subconsciousness would associate his image with the concept. Connection like that could not be broken in a few days or weeks.

No matter how much they both wanted it to.

"Let's try again tomorrow," Shadow decided resolutely, knowing that this time he needed to be the voice of the reason here. They both might hate their current situation but it was not going to do any good if they pushed. After all, it have taken _weeks_ for Sonic to progress from trying to stay calm in Shadow's presence to just holding his hand and other small physical gestures—and those had been_ considerably_ smaller and less terrifying feats in comparison to this. It would be surprising if they managed this in half the time.

"...Okay," the hero murmured eventually and Shadow could see the somewhat-relieved slump of the hero's shoulders, which pulled the agent's mouth into a bittersweet smile.

In moments like these, Shadow wondered whether they would even be _able _to beat the odds or if one day Sonic would decided that he just_ couldn't_ do it and give up. They were both stubborn as hell but that didn't mean they could not admit defeat—and, unfortunately, something like this was _not_ unlikely to break them both.

But Sonic had always been a _warrior_ and so Shadow dared to_ hope_.


End file.
